The Alpha King's Bride novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Her Own Cup
By then the whole north had come to watch.
Villagers stood in rows along the bank with lanterns, drawn by the challenge, and every one of them saw Judith set down the empty cup.
The old woman with the staff took the flask from her basket.
She sniffed it once, and her mouth went hard.
"Raspberry leaf," she said.
"It is," said Judith.
"Wolfsbane root. Honey. And a sandy hair, a fresh strand, steeped." She held it up so the lanterns caught it. "Enough for four mornings, and you have drunk it all."
A sound ran along the bank.
"That's medicine," Judith said.
"It is a tonic forbidden in three kingdoms," said the old woman. "And you carried it to the Queen's table in the Crown Hall under a flag of truce."
"For the child," Judith said. "I only wanted..."
She stopped.
Her hand went to her nose.
She sniffed the air, once, twice, and her warm face slipped.
"I can't smell," she said.
Nobody answered her.
"I can't smell anything." She turned around, her eyes wide, her hands out. "Where is the river? Where is my carriage? Imogen? Imogen, where are you?"
Imogen stood one pace from her mother's elbow.
"I'm here, Mother," she said.
"Who's that?"
"It's me."
Judith's head turned back and forth, searching, and the whole bank watched her not find her own daughter.
Wolfsbane takes the nose.
It had taken mine for four years, and I had thought that was what grief felt like.
"Now you know what it is," I said.
Judith's face twisted toward the sound of my voice.
"Finola," she whimpered. "Finola, dear. Mother needs her tea."
I had stood in her kitchen at eight years old, and I had wanted her to love me.
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